Weekly ForceCast: August 19, 2011
This week we welcome guest co-host Cris Macht (The Force Among Us), Jimmy Mac catches up with Star Wars legends Billy Dee Williams and Peter Mayhew, and more Blu-ray details emerge from London's Empire Big Screen film festival at the O2. Plus, updates on FanDays IV, a new Clone Wars trailer, and much, more. Guests *''The Force Among Us'' director Cris Macht (as guest co-host) *Billy Dee Williams (recorded during a Disney D23 teleconference) *Peter Mayhew (recorded at Wizard World) Topics *After mentioning that he'll be doing The Force Among Us 2, Cris says that he'll also be attending ComiCONN on August 27th in Stamford, CT. He and A New Hope actor Anthony Forrest will be on a panel called "Live from Tatooine." They'll each be interviewed for about 30 minutes. Spaghetti Cake's Glen Nelson will provide background music for the panel. *Jimmy asks Cris to talk about the process of making The Force Among Us and what fans can expect from the sequel. "It's really gonna be a celebration piece of The Empire Strikes Back," Cris says of the sequel. "We have a lot of great Norway footage that I spent a lot of money on, and I'd love to bring that back into the sequel." *Fan Days IV Update **Dave Filoni has had to postpone his FD4 appearance due to the production schedule of The Clone Wars. **''TCW'' voice actor Phil LaMarr has also had to postpone his appearance, due to personal reasons. **''Fanboys'' writer Ernie Cline will be attending. **''TCW'' voice actors Tom Kane and Stephen Stanton will be signing autographs for free all weekend. **After Jason reads a listener email from a man who wants help getting out of his wedding to attend Fan Days, Jason, Jimmy, and Cris discuss the intersection of marriage and Star Wars fandom. *Jason asks Jimmy to talk about the ForceCast community's continued response to the McInerney household basement flood. "We received about seven inches of rainfall in a five-hour period," Jimmy says. "It was ridiculous." His entire block experienced flooding the basement level, and this led to "the bottom layer of my bookshelf" getting "smoked." This flooding caused the destruction of "about 40 or 50 Star Wars paperback novels." Jay Shepard quickly sent Jimmy replacement copies of about 18 of those novels, and soon after that, ForceCast listener Joshua Stolte sent Jimmy the X-Wing book series. Jimmy thanks Josh and credits his two friends with "removing the sting" of his loss. "What a community," Jason says. Jimmy agrees, adding, "That's the strength of ... the Star Wars community in general. We see this stuff happening all the time." Discussion shifts to the charity work of the 501st Legion, with Jimmy bringing up a recent 501st story by The Chicago Tribune. "The fact that they give back so much is really very touching," Jimmy says. *''Star Wars'' artists Denise Vasquez and Randy Martinez emailed Jimmy to let him know about their first gallery art show, "Art from a Galaxy Far Far Away." The show, which they call "an experience," will take place at Hold Up Art in Los Angeles and will feature Vasquez's new Dia de los Muertos ("Day of the Dead")-themed art. *The Billy Dee Quote of the Week **Jimmy reports on a recent Billy Dee Williams teleconference in which he participated. The call was organized as part of Disney's D23 convention. "There were about eight to ten of us the call," Jimmy says, and "Billy Dee was very generous with his time." Jason then plays the audio of Jimmy's conversation with Billy Dee. **Jimmy asks Billy Dee what appeals to him about painting Disney characters and which one is his favorite. Billy Dee says that his favorite Disney character is Mickey Mouse. **Jimmy asks which Disney character Billy Dee would prefer to play Lando in an animated version of TESB -- "Oh, Mickey Mouse, of course." When Jimmy asks why, Billy Dee responds, "Well, he's an Oreo cookie ... he's like beyond the question of black or white, he's both black and white." **On that note, Jimmy prompts Billy Dee to talk about his views on race -- "I always see myself as the full spectrum of color," Billy Dee replies. **When asked if he has gotten used to seeing his face on all manner of products, he replies, "It means that I did my work well." **Jimmy asks what his first reaction was to the role of Lando, and Billy Dee responds that when he saw the cape, it sealed the deal. **Billy Dee on the upcoming Blu-ray release: "With all of the new technology ... I'm always curious to see how it's improved." **Jimmy asks Billy Dee if he remembers shooting the ROTJ sandstorm scene (which will be on the Blu-ray set's deleted scenes reel). Billy Dee seems to vaguely remember that day. **Jimmy asks Billy Dee what his most memorable scenes were. He mentions getting choked by Chewbacca and standing up to Darth Vader ("for about three seconds"). **Jimmy asks if Billy Dee has any props from the sets. Billy Dee says that he has a Blue Harvest hat, a "Revenge of the Jedi" shirt, and other miscellanea. **Jimmy asks if Billy Dee's three-year-old grandson, who he says has seen the films, ever calls Billy Dee "Lando." Billy Dee says that he's actually called him "Grandpa Lando" before. **When asked what's next for him, Billy Dee says that he's starring in an upcoming stage-show production of Driving Miss Daisy. **After the recording ends, Jason says, "Dude, if stage show hits Chicago, I am there!" Jason and Jimmy agree that Billy Dee's presence in the production makes it a must-see. **The official clip of the week is Billy Dee telling Jimmy, "I think I'm a rather charming kind of a guy, and plus I was pretty handsome in those days." *Headline News **Lucasfilm has announced that Season Four of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will premiere on Friday, September 16th at 9pm -- the same day as the release of the complete saga on Blu-ray. ***On the subject of the Blu-ray release, Jason reads from an article that criticizes George Lucas and portrays him in a greedy, manipulative light for including forty hours of new bonus content on the box set. Jason takes the author to task and says that he was probably criticizing Lucas years ago for "holding out" on fans by not releasing the saga in HD. Jason also notes that criticizing Star Wars for its merchandising is hypocritical because of all the other pop culture phenomenons (famous bands, major league sports teams, etc.) that have been heavily merchandised. No one, he says, criticizes the band KISS or says they're "selling out" when KISS-branded merchandise is released. Jimmy points out that, since Lucas is the public face of the company that bears his name, critics often unfairly single him out (such as when Lucasfilm files lawsuits). ***Jason and Jimmy say that they welcome the ability to purchase Star Wars on Blu-ray. Jimmy points out that with this new level of picture quality, they might notice things in the six movies that they've never seen before. He says that he experienced this when he first saw Return of the Jedi in widescreen on TV -- he hadn't seen Dengar in Jabba's palace before that day. The conversation then transitions to the DVD deleted scenes and how bizarre the AOTC ones were. In particular, Jason mentions the scene in Padme's Naboo bedroom, "where she's talking about the dying race on that one planet." ***Jimmy reads from an email that Paul Bateman sent him regarding Lucas' haters. According to Paul, some people create and other people destroy. Lucas, he says, shaped "so many peoples' lives" and left an indelible mark on history with the ground-breaking nature of his creative products. He also says that haters are guilty of "lazy thinking: they hear one moron moan about it and bleat along like sheep, because it's easy." **Jason plays Jimmy's interview with Peter Mayhew, which was recorded at Chicago Comic-Con. In the interview, Jimmy and Peter talk about his private Chewbacca museum, what he remembers of the ROTJ sandstorm scene, his work with Billy Dee Williams in the "Chewie choking Lando" scene, and more. Significant quotes *Quotes go here. Audible.com Sponsorship *Visit AudiblePodcast.com/TFN for a free audiobook download.